Out of Service

For a while, this blog will be on a hiatus, along with my Twitter and Facebook accounts. This has nothing to do with anyone but myself - basically, I'm too busy to concern myself with social networks. Go figure.

Not sure when I'll be back, though. I've a lot of stuff coming up, soon. I might be back during the Christmas break. Or in February. I can't be too sure. Twitter will be revived with this blog, though. Facebook... maybe sooner. I don't know.

Until such time that I come back on the scene, I wish you all good health, etc. etc. and, if you can spare the cash, I encourage you to support Poetry Against Cancer, in aid of St John's Ward at Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin.

Best wishes,
Paul.

Buy Poetry Against Cancer here

Poetry For Christmas

Hi everyone,

I'm writing today to ask you to consider adding something to your Christmas list, for yourself or for other people: it's a poetry book I edited entitled Poetry Against Cancer, in aid of St John's Ward at Our Lady's Children's Hospital in Crumlin, Dublin. St John's is the Oncology and Haematology ward at Ireland's leading children's hospital.

We're not asking for much, here. The book costs €7.50 plus P&P. 100% of the revenue earned on the book - that's all the profit we make from it after the printing costs and the publisher's costs - will go to St John's.

If you order soon, the publisher can guarantee delivery before December 24th.

The book is available by clicking the following link: http://tiny.cc/pacbuy

We hope you will support the cause and please spread the word so that the hospital can benefit even during these tough economic times.

Thank you and God bless,
Paul.

In My Experience

In my experience, the summer was wasted. I know, it's November so talking about summer seems odd, especially when I talk about it in the context of the summer to come, not the summer gone. Basically, I have come to the conclusion that rather than take full advantage of my time off - writing all the time, or reading more, rather than sitting around waiting for segmented conversations with a few individuals - then I might have gotten a whole lot more done. I could have arranged times to talk to people, or I could have done without it for some time.

Of course, during the summer gone I did not think along these lines. I was almost desperate for conversation with a few people who I didn't see very much. Recent experiences of not talking to these people very much - not necessarily talking to many people very much, actually, but not in an attempt to avoid them, just being overly busy most of the time - has brought me to a stage whereby I should be able to survive the coming summer break. Yes, it's a long time away, but due to particular, inconclusive circumstances, I have begun measures to ensure that I do not become that same desperately lonely person again.

That wasn't healthy for me, and it wasn't healthy for them, and when the summer months were over, things weren't exactly great again. Nothing was quite as I had expected it. It was a horrible, biting few weeks, and now that I have taken these measures, purposely not talking to someone - not because we're fighting, but because of changed circumstances, some of them still unsure, I had to be sure I could go for any length of time not talking to him, and other people too, before that same condition of isolation could be forced upon me again - I feel that I might survive the summer.

Between now and then, I have to go to a school to teach (dreading it, because we've never had lessons so long as the ones we have to teach, but looking forward to actually getting to the school), I have to finish my modules this semester, do the entire second semester of college and sit my exams. However, adequately prepared for the isolation that comes when everyone goes home for the summer, I intend to do a lot of writing. Last summer gone, I wrote approximately 60,000 words in the space of a month. I have three and a half months off. I could write a whole lot more if I actually put my head down. Alternatively, if I had more hours in work I could earn more money that would see me through a lot more of the college year. There's also been talk of a holiday somewhere - the jury's still out on that, though.

The point of this, though, isn't to announce my summer plans. Rather, it's to express my potentiality to actually survive the summer. The process of preparing myself has already begun, so that I am not thrown into the deep end at the end of May. Because, in my experience, that's the worst thing that can happen to me in the summer.

Masks

A few months ago, I wrote a blog post about masks (which can be read here), and while I was perfectly happy with it, it didn't entirely sum up every thought in my head in the way that I wanted it to. I'm not one for changing blog posts unless they mention something that someone might not want said, so naturally I've kept it as it was first written, following a dinner with one of my very best friends during the summer. (The dinner was fine and had nothing to do with the masks).

And a few years ago, I wrote an imperfect story about a boy who wears masks all the time, until he loses his physical face in a fire and is forced to wear one all the time (sort of V for Vendetta stuff, now that I reflect on it, though I'm not sure I saw the movie before I wrote the story.) This story was meant to show the universality of the need to wear masks. It did not.

However, earlier today in college we received a version of Charles Finn's Please Hear What I Am Not Saying. The piece got to me, so I went to find a link to it... only to find the original version on a website set up by Finn's wife. This poem does full justice to my mask theory, and I wonder if maybe I read one of the many versions of it in circulation, many years ago.

I encourage you to read the poem (by clicking here). It's such a lovely piece and it does what I never could - it presents the theory, the truth, about masks, but it does so very simply. Here's my public thank you to Mr Finn for writing this wonderful poem. Kudos to you, sir!

DO NOT DISTURB

... EXCEPT FOR TEA!

I have an outrageous amount of work to do today... and Mother of Mine wants to go to town to have me look for a jacket for Christmas (because I'd be too lazy to look for one myself... And she's already seen one...). So, basically, I'm setting up a DO NOT DISTURB thing... anyone who has a problem, needs to take a number and get in line.

The way things are looking, DND will last until Tuesday's tutorial. I'll be running away from people all day Monday and Tuesday to get work done and submitted on time (all for the wonderful thing we call Prayer and Prophecy in Israel - God College is fun!). And, actually, I'll probably still be running away from people between now and... well, pretty much all semester, unless I get ahead of my workload.

I do hope no one gets offended when I appear to ignore them in college. With all the work I have to do (and being several thousand words behind in NaNoWriMo) I really don't have any chances to talk to people for very long outside of lectures. This does propose a problem, of course, because of a particularly difficult situation in with someone and the belief that I'll actually have time to talk. Not for at least three weeks, I'm afraid. Actually, I'd hope at most three weeks, but with me you can never be sure what sort of trouble I'm going to get in to with my workload. The more I have to do... the less motivated I am. Well, not entirely true. The more work I have from several directions seems a fairer assessment. So with college work and novel work and people work... Paulie is busy.

So I apologise in advance to everyone who thinks I'm being an ass. I'm not doing it on purpose, I just have an awful lot of stuff crashing down on top of me, a big wave of words in their thousands trying to drown me. (Oh I like that... I'm going to use that again).

I best be off... I'm supposed to be motivating myself towards a better future. Or something like that.

Unintentional Hiatus

Okay, the blog died again. Not. My. Fault. I mean, okay - I was out last night until the early hours of the morning. But that has nothing to do with it. My Internet at home was down. Also, I had a test to study for. It was a load of nonsense.

So, in the time since I last posted, I haven't written very much. I'm over four thousand words behind in NaNoWriMo - this has never happened to me before, so I'm a little worried I might not finish. On the other hand, I do also have the matter of college work, which has priority to writing a novel at high speed. I know what I want to write, it's just getting the time to do it (and yet... I'm blogging.)

Anyway, I haven't really got much more time or energy to write on this blog today but readers - those of you who aren't in my college - I am not dead. I have not quit my blog. I am just busy with a copious amount of essays and, you know, that night out. Three and a half hours sleep, laddles and jellyspoons. So going to a lecture on Descartes asking me to suspend my belief in everything is just difficult.

See, I have some things I believe in no matter what. Like sleep. And my bed. I don't care if they're not real, I like them! Why, oh why, is it only one in the afternoon? And why, oh why, do I have to do things in my life and not be entirely sure if they're happening at all..? (Okay, that was mostly unrelated to everything I've spoken about in this blog post... mad egg syndrome, that's all...)

Day One of NaNoWriMo 2010

Currently my word count stands at 1552 words, all written today on my iPod Touch, though not all of it on the bus. My protagonist, Sam, has been re-introduced to the reader, his predicament has been made clear, and he's on his way, already, to fixing it. Apparently. I mean, it's apparent to the reader, but I know the longer version of that story.

I wasn't sure I'd get into the swing of things so easily. Okay, so I have to write a bit more - 115 words - to reach my daily target to stay on track for the finish, but I'm enjoying the story. I didn't like my novel last year, The Wedding Singer, so I didn't finish it. I filled in far too much with stuff that wasn't important, I didn't like the main character and I didn't believe the story was worth finishing. This time is different, because I'm filling the story with things that (a) are relevant to the plot, (b) are in-keeping with the style of the novel and (c) are entertaining to write. I like the main character, possibly because he's a mash-up of me and several other people, though I couldn't tell you who they are even if I wanted to. And I think the story is worth finishing, because the plot is sustainable... or at least what I have planned is!

NaNo is a tough ol' challenge this year, because I have so much more work to do. I'm tired already and it's not even half seven on day one. Also, I didn't stay up past midnight to write this year, because I had college today and I knew I'd be Too Tired to Function if I stayed up. I've seen a friend has over 4000 words done. I am insanely jealous. Though she didn't finish the last couple of years... maybe this year?

I should be able to get stuff written, anyway. I'm not entirely hopeless at this writing thing! I have a little bit of practice (three novels and three novellas...) to keep me going. But, eh... this blog post has to end or I'll get nowhere! Wish me luck as I attempt to write a book while making sure I don't fail several modules in college!